The invention relates to an arrangement for a closing member for a filling mouth of a filling machine.
The invention relates to an arrangement in which a closing member for a filling mouth having a filling channel in a filling machine for pastry and/or lumpy material of the food industry, such as butter, margarine, gourmet salads, mayonnaise and similar food products. The arrangement of the invention is provided with a bore which is perpendicularly disposed with respect to the filling axis of the filling mouth in which the closing member is rotatably mounted.
Such closing members generally form the lower end of the filling mouthpiece, below which the packaging container, for example a cup, is moved laterally on a transportation band in synchronization with the operation of the machine. (See, for example, West-German published patent application Nos. DE 30 02 009 and 23 59 522). As soon as a packaging container has come to a stillstand, the closing member is opened for the purpose of permitting the filling material to pass therethrough and thereby to fill the container. After the filling process has been terminated, the closing member seals itself and the transportation band advances one operative step until the next empty packaging container is presented in confrontational relationship to the filling mouthpiece. The opening and closing of the closing member is effected by means of cam discs or by means of piston cylinder units that operate with pressurized air via a rod linkage in synchronization with the containers that are advanced therepast.
It is known to use filling mouthpieces in filling machines for filling material having pasty and up to lumpy consistency which are provided with a so-called "stop cock" as a closing member. Filling mouthpieces of the afore-described type are provided with filling channels through the geometric center of which there extends a filling axis. By means of this filling channel the filling material of pasty up to chunky or lumpy consistency can be transported. There is provided in the filling mouthpiece a bore that extends laterally to the filling axis. This bore forms the housing for the stop cock in which the aforementioned cock is rotatably mounted. The cock proper includes a bore which extends transversely to its longitudinal axis. This bore coincides, insofar as its size is concerned, to the diameter of the filling channel of the filling piece and is arranged in such a way that it is in alignment with the filling channel. When such alignment is present, the closing member is opened and the filling material can flow therethrough into the packaging container. The closing member is then closed when the cock is turned 90.degree.. In this position the bore of the cock is disposed transversely to the filling channel and the imperforate portion of the cylindrical surface of the cock seals against the bore wall of the cock housing.
Such a closing member fulfills in most cases its purpose. However, by means of its closing movement, as a result of the rotational motion of the cock, the outwardly flowing filling material is displaced at the end of the sealing process to that edge of the filling channel which is disposed in the rotational direction, in which the opening which is being closed, becomes first of all continuously smaller and finally disappears completely. As a result of such closing operation there is formed at the edge of the packaging container a displaced tip of remanent pasty filling material which forms a heap or tip like protrusion at the edge of the container on the upper surface of the filling material. It has been attempted to avoid this phenomenon by means of an eccentric stop position of the packaging container relative to the filling mouthpiece to thereby displace the remanent filling material tip away from the edge of the container. These attempts of improving the arrangement did not achieve the desired results because during the beginning of the filling process a filling material heaping at the container edge was observed. In particular when the filling material is very tough or solidifies after the filling operation a smoothing out of the filling material's upper surface can later on no longer occur. Such a filling material heaping at the container edge is to be avoided because of the possible contacting of the filling material on the container edge is to be avoided for aesthetic reasons alone.